Setting Up Your Airtable Base

How CollabPortals Connects Users to Data

CollabPortals needs to know two things about your Airtable base:

1. Who is this user? It matches the portal user's email to a record in your "user table."
2. What data belongs to them? It follows linked record fields from other tables back to that user record.

If your base doesn't have these two pieces in place, users will be able to log in but won't see any data. This guide walks through exactly how to set things up.

The User Table

Every CollabPortals portal needs a user table: a table where each row represents one person who will use the portal. This table must have an email field.

Common names for this table: "Contacts", "Clients", "Users", "Team Members", "Students", "Vendors."

At minimum, the user table needs:

Field	Type	Purpose
Name	Single line text	Display name for the user
Email	Email	How CollabPortals identifies the user (must be unique per person)

You can have as many other fields as you like on the user table (phone, company, role, notes, etc.). The email field is the only one CollabPortals requires.

Linking Data to Users

Here's the part that trips people up: for users to see records in other tables, those records need to be linked back to the user table.

In Airtable, this means adding a "Link to another record" field (the multipleRecordLinks field type) that points to your user table. Each record then gets linked to the user it belongs to.

Example: A Project Management Base

Say you have three tables:

Table	What it stores
Contacts	One row per person (the user table)
Projects	Client projects
Tasks	Individual tasks within projects

For a portal user to see their projects, the Projects table needs a linked record field pointing to Contacts:

Projects Table
Project Name	Client (linked to Contacts)	Status
Website Redesign	Alice Smith	In Progress
Brand Strategy	Alice Smith	Complete
Mobile App	Bob Jones	In Progress

When Alice logs in to the portal, CollabPortals sees that her email matches "Alice Smith" in Contacts, then shows her only the projects linked to her record: "Website Redesign" and "Brand Strategy." She never sees Bob's "Mobile App."

What About Tasks?

Every table that should filter records per user needs its own direct link to the user table. CollabPortals does not follow chains through intermediate tables.

So if you have a Tasks table, it's not enough for Tasks to link to Projects and Projects to link to Contacts. The Tasks table itself needs a linked record field pointing to Contacts.

Tasks Table
Task Name	Project (linked to Projects)	Contact (linked to Contacts)	Due Date
Design homepage	Website Redesign	Alice Smith	2026-04-01
Write copy	Brand Strategy	Alice Smith	2026-04-15
Build API	Mobile App	Bob Jones	2026-03-30

The "Project" link is useful for your own Airtable workflows, but the "Contact" link is what CollabPortals uses to filter records.

Common Base Patterns

Simple: Every Table Links to Users

The most straightforward setup. Every table has its own linked record field pointing to the user table.

• Contacts (user table)
  • Projects links to Contacts
  • Invoices links to Contacts
  • Documents links to Contacts

With Cross-Table Links

Tables can link to each other for your own workflows (Tasks to Projects, for example), but every table that should filter by user still needs its own direct link to the user table.

• Contacts (user table)
  • Projects links to Contacts
  • Tasks links to Contacts (and also links to Projects for your own use)
  • Invoices links to Contacts
  • Notes links to Contacts (and also links to Projects for your own use)

The links between tables (Tasks to Projects, Notes to Projects) are useful in Airtable but are not what CollabPortals uses for filtering. The links to Contacts are what matter.

What Happens Without Links

If a table has no linked record field connecting it (directly or indirectly) to the user table:

• Portal users can still see the table (if table permissions allow it)
• All records in the table are visible to all users since there's no way to filter by user
• This is fine for reference tables (like a "Categories" or "Statuses" table) that everyone should see

Setting Up Links in Airtable

If your base doesn't have the right links yet, here's how to add them:

1. 1

   Open the table that needs linking

   Go to the table where records should be filtered per user (e.g., Projects).

2. 2

   Add a Link to another record field

   Click the "+" button to add a new field. Choose "Link to another record" as the field type. Select your user table (e.g., Contacts) as the target.

3. 3

   Link existing records

   Go through your existing records and link each one to the correct user. Click the cell in the new linked record column and select the right person.

4. 4

   Link new records going forward

   When adding new records in Airtable, always link them to the appropriate user. CollabPortals auto-links records created through the portal, but records created directly in Airtable need to be linked manually.

Checklist Before Creating Your Portal

Before you create your portal, confirm:

• You have a table with one row per person and an email field (your user table)
• Every person who needs portal access has a record in the user table with their email address
• Every table with user-specific data has its own linked record field pointing directly to the user table
• Existing records are linked to the correct users
• Reference tables that everyone should see don't contain sensitive data

Common Mistakes

"My users can log in but see no data" The most common cause: the data tables aren't linked to the user table. Add a linked record field and connect the records.

"Users see all records, not just their own" The linked record field exists but the records aren't actually linked to anyone. Open Airtable and check that each record has a value in the linked record column.

"I added a linked record field but it points to the wrong table" The linked record field must point to the user table you selected when creating the portal. If your user table is "Contacts," the link should go to "Contacts," not to some other table.

"Some tables filter correctly but others don't" Each table needs its own direct link to the user table. If Projects filters correctly but Tasks doesn't, check that Tasks has its own "Link to another record" field pointing to Contacts. Linking Tasks to Projects is not enough.

Next Steps

• Creating a Portal - Build your portal once your base is ready
• Table Permissions - Control which tables are visible
• Linked Record Filtering - Restrict dropdown options in linked record fields